Tremble
by First Responders
Summary: Sports journalist Bella Swan has been assigned to cover the FIFA World Cup, but when her favorite photographer gets in an accident, she is forced to go with her arrogant rival and secret crush, Edward Cullen. Bella tries to fight the attraction, but a quick trip to the rainforest turns into a life-changing experience when everything starts to tremble.
1. CAPÍTULO UNO

**_CAPÍTULO UNO_**

~MR~

The blare of the alarm clock woke up Bella with a start. She sat up in her bed, her hair a wild mess of curls and knots as she slammed her hand down on the snooze button.

Bleary eyed, she tried to remember why she had set her alarm for—she turned to check the time—four o'clock!

_What the hell?_

But when she spotted the bags by her bed, she remembered.

_Oh yeah, I'm flying to South America today!_

Excited, she jumped out of the bed, turning off the alarm clock before she raced towards the bathroom. She couldn't wait to get to the airport now and not only because she was going back to the country where her mother was born but because she was finally covering a major sporting event—The FIFA World Cup.

Growing up with her mother's family so close by, she always watched the soccer—er, football (she needed to get the terms straight) matches with her uncles and cousins. She fell in love with the sport when she was just a little girl, and even though her dad was more of a baseball fan, every time the Seattle Sounders played, he would always get tickets for them.

Bella got out of the shower and sighed, thinking about her dad. When he found out she was going to cover the World Cup, he was over the moon. One of his biggest regrets was never having taken her to her mom's hometown after she passed away, but this trip was a double opportunity she wouldn't miss for the world.

Too bad Benjamin wasn't travelling with her.

Her favorite photographer had gotten into a nasty car accident; his leg was shattered and would need several surgeries. She had visited him just two days ago and he'd promised he would find a photographer to substitute for him, one who would give the coverage the quality it deserved.

Bella dressed in her most comfortable clothes, knowing she was going to spend hours on a plane. She grabbed a strawberry pop tart and ate it quickly while she called for a cab.

An hour and a half later, she was walking towards the check-in desk at the airport when she spotted a mop of reddish brown hair. She stopped in her tracks and pulled a magazine from her purse. She covered her face as she tried to walk by unnoticed.

"Nice try, Swan, but I was actually waiting for you."

Bella stopped in her tracks and groaned. "What do you want, Cullen?"

Edward Cullen was the _vain_ of her existence. Cocky, arrogant, and a total manwhore (or at least that was what she had heard), he was the only person in the world who could push Bella's buttons. He was also her biggest competition through college. Add the fact she had hated him since he completely ignored her freshman year of college, and nothing could lessen the animosity she felt towards him.

"As I said, I was waiting for you," he responded with that stupid smirk on his face, dangling a press pass in front of her eyes.

Bella took a step back, but when she saw the name of her newspaper on his ID, she tried to grab the pass.

"No, no, no," he said, shaking his finger at her. "This is _my_ pass, which coincidentally matches yours!"

Bella crossed her arms and glared at him. "Where did you get that?"

If it was possible, Edward's smirk got cockier. "See, I had just returned from Africa, taking some pictures for _National Geographic_"— Bella rolled her eyes at his not-so-subtle bragging—"when I got a call from an old college buddy. He said he was desperate and needed someone to go in his place to South America to cover a major sporting event, so like the good friend I am, I accepted. Little did I know that the reporter I was supposed to partner with was none other than you!"

Bella cursed under her breath and turned around. She dialed her editor's phone number, and he picked up after the second ring.

"You're going with him or there is no piece."

Bella gritted her teeth. "Hello to you too, Emmett. Oh, and by the way, thanks for the heads up!"

Her editor sighed on the other side of the line. "Look, Benjamin and I tried to find someone to go with you, but with the Stanley Cup finals in just a couple of weeks, no one was available. We were lucky to snag Edward before another newspaper or magazine could. He's a great photographer, Bella, and he's perfect at capturing candids, something you need for your piece and the approach you want to give to the coverage."

Bella sighed, unable to deny that. When she got the assignment, she knew she wanted to do more than just cover the games; she wanted to bring light to a sport many Americans were just discovering now. Ever since David Beckham played a season with the LA Galaxy, the interest in football had grown in the States. Americans were fascinated by the talented player who was considered football royalty in Europe.

She wanted to recreate the same fascination and multiply it. She wanted America to know all the elite players who were coming to the World Cup and discover the passion for the sport through the eyes of the players. So many of them came from very humble backgrounds, and she wanted the piece to have a human interest angle. She already had three major interviews lined up, and she was looking to score at least two more.

Bella was out of time, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, Cullen was all she had.

"Fine, Emmett. But you owe me . . . big time!"

She ended the call before Emmett could reply and turned to face her nemesis.

Edward grinned and winked. "Ready, partner?"

Bella glared at him and briskly walked away.

_Lord, give me strength to not strangle this smug bastard in his sleep._

~BoH~

Neck pillow. Check!  
Bloody Mary. Check!  
Eye mask. Check!  
Settling in for a nice, long nap. Check!

"Oh, excuse _me_!"

Edward lifted the corner of his sleep mask just in time to see Bella deliberately bang his elbow with the corner of her rolling bag.

"Ow! What the f—hell, Swan?"

"Sorry, is your first-class seat not wide enough to accommodate your gigantic ego?"

Damn, the fiery pistol of a girl he'd always crushed on had turned into one hot journalist. With her fury setting him on fire, all Edward needed was a square of melted Hershey's and a graham cracker to go with his toasted marshmallows.

"Oh, I get it. It's my fault I negotiated a better deal than you did?"

"Ugh!" Bella set her chin and shuffled along with the chain gang of coach passengers, taking out her frustration on the poor suitcase dragging behind her.

Edward tossed back the rest of his Bloody Mary, yanked down the blackout mask, and let a self-satisfied grin find a home on his face.

_Note to self: send Benjamin a tin of caramel corn and a huge fucking thank-you note. _

Thirty days and nights to win over Bella Swan without goody two-shoes Angela to tell her Edward was a bad influence, without Bella's dear old dad and his trusty shotgun, and without mealymouthed "Fig" Newton to woo her with lame-ass Whitman's samplers purchased at the Walgreen's drive-thru window.

_Fuck, that last one really hurt._

Edward rolled his eyes behind the mask, told himself he was an idiot, even growled in frustration, but it was no use. Once the painful memory crawled to the surface, he couldn't shake it.

_Seriously, Cullen? You're still sore about Newton scooping you with the prom invite?_

Senior prom was what . . . ten years ago? Yeah, that wound was still oozing angry pus. Maybe because Edward had purchased a brand new mauve suit with his own hard-earned money to impress the girl. Or maybe it was because of the rare effort he'd put into actually taming his crazy hair for the pictures. Or perhaps that he'd taken so much time to stage each of the four shots with his tripod and timer.

_"__Don't think so," _the nagging voice of deeply-buried rejection answered.

With a familiar pit in his belly, Edward flashed on the four snapshots he'd slid into Bella's locker at lunch, not realizing Newton had already sealed the deal.

_Shot #1: Edward in his suit and tie, clean-shaven and tidy-haired, a white posterboard with a giant red "P" hanging from his shoulders._

_Shot #2: No jacket or tie, shirt unbuttoned at the neck, big blue "R" on his chest._

_Shot #3: Just the suit pants, a green "O" covering his bare chest from view._

_And the final blow, shot #4: Nothing but the "M" on his chest and a question mark covering up the essential bits._

Like observing a train wreck, Edward recalled watching Newton accompany her to her locker that day, the guy following behind her like a damn trained puppy who'd just swallowed the biggest milk bone of his life. As Edward spied from the alcove of Mr. Nutter's doorway, Bella discovered the envelope, and with a confused crinkle of her forehead stuffed it quickly into her backpack.

She'd never said a word to him about it, didn't have to. The story was all over school by the end of that day. Everyone knew "the swan and the newt were finally cross-pollinating." Edward made a pact with his self-esteem not to try a stunt like that again anytime soon, not to risk exposing himself. He changed his traffic patterns so he wouldn't have to run into Bella between classes, locked down Jessica Stanley for prom, and pretended it didn't kill him to watch Bella slow dance with someone else.

Since then, he'd traveled the globe, chasing after other brunettes who had a knack with words—even catching a few—but time and time again, it was Bella who slipped through his fingers.

Thirty days wasn't such a long time. He'd have to be on top of his game. Edward drifted off to sleep with the highly disturbing realization that this might well be his last chance to win Bella Swan.

~AF~

A baby was crying. Of course a baby was crying. It was a fourteen-hour-long flight with only one brief layover. Why wouldn't a baby cry?

She was doubting her capacity to survive this, and regretting not paying the extra two grand the first-class ticket demanded, but she needed that money if she wanted to indulge in a few pleasures during this trip.

She wouldn't even be thinking about first class if not for that insufferable Edward Cullen!

_Maybe just being away from him would make it worthwhile to have to endure coach_, she reasoned. The renewed screaming of the baby crushed her pitiable attempt at rationalizing.

She hadn't seen him in over a year. That had been a very well-orchestrated plan of hers. Avoiding Cullen was vital to her sanity. And now this, all those months thanking God he was on a different continent so she wouldn't have to hear about his awesomeness from other journalists and editors, how he was so sought after. She had been better than he in college. He was an okay photographer, but... Well, a good photographer… Damn it! He was fantastic with a camera; he could use a disposable one and still get out-of-this-world shots, but that didn't make him a journalist; it made him an artist. Yes, that was it! She needed to take this opportunity to set him on the right track; he should be exhibiting his work in galleries, not encumbering her life with his pesky self-importance.

She sighed.

If only.

Why did Benjamin have to have that accident? It ruined a big part of the excitement she had felt over this job.

She looked around her and tried to recapture her enthusiasm from the positive energy of some of her fellow travelers. A cute couple was whispering and making googly eyes at each other and laughing at something; it was so sweet it was disgusting.

She smiled.

Romance was not her _real_ agenda, but she had a secret fantasy one, too. She imagined that she could have been white-picket-fence material in some other universe. As things stood, she had more urgent matters to focus on.

Bella's chest and stomach filled with anticipation as she thought of those things she should be focusing on. The Oliveira interview, in particular, had her giddy. She had actively pursued that one. Santiago Oliveira's family was from the same small town where her grandmother had been born. There was no one left from her own family there that she knew of, but she had always wanted to see the magnificent scenery her mother described so vividly.

_"All is intensely green in Crepúsculo." She remembered her mother whispering excitedly, her eyes lost in memories._

_"You mean like in Forks," a fourteen-year-old Bella responded a bit disdainfully._

_Her mother chuckled. "I will never understand your distaste for Forks. It really is beautiful, amor."_

_"Yes, it is. It's also booooring, Mama. We could fish in the Caribbean, too, you know?"_

_"Billy lives there, and Charlie misses him," Renée said with finality._

_"I bet you miss my Abue, too. Can we go visit her? That way I would know what you mean by _intensely green_," whined Bella, rolling her eyes petulantly._

_"It's because of the light," said Renée, dodging Bella's question. "The sunlight is bright, and it percolates through the leaves and makes all the colors pop. Green reigns over it all, but the purples, reds, blues, and yellows of the flowers and birds will not be ignored; their voices and colors are loud._

_"And the charming houses, white with red tile roofs…"_

A loud fart, whose foul stench slowly crept towards her, rudely shook her out of her memory.

Bella held her breath and looked at her watch, willing it to move faster.

Eleven hours left.

Stupid, arrogant, unbearably beautiful Edward Cullen and his astronomically expensive first-class ticket.

Trying to quell her frustration, she took a deep breath, remembering too late the reason why she had held it in the first place.

* * *

**Authors' Note: **We hope you enjoyed chapter one of Tremble! Many thanks to **Chayasara** for her beta services as we melded our three styles into one beginning.  
Follow us here for the next chapter, then check out the **Fandom Gives Disaster Relief compilation** to find the rest (link is on our profile).

After chapter two, this story will become a collaboration of any and all who would care to join us. **IF YOU WANT TO WRITE A CHAPTER (200-800 words), join us in our Facebook Group First Responders (see the link on our profile) and we'll fill you in on how this works!** Meanwhile, check out the Fandom Gives blog (also linked on our profile), make a cash donation to the relief effort to secure your copy of the compilation, write a story, donate an item to the online raffle, sign up to beta or make a banner, and SPREAD THE WORD! All are ways to help- choose yours!

We all thank you for your support.  
Mina Rivera, Bornonhalloween, and Ana Fluttersby (FIRST RESPONDERS)


	2. CAPÍTULO DOS

_**CAPÍTULO DOS**_

~MR~

"_Una cerveza, por favor. Bien helada_," ordered Bella. The barman quickly set an ice cold beer in front of her and a small plate with lime wedges.

She downed the entire beer in one go, ordering another one. This one she took her time with, pushing a couple of lime wedges inside the bottle.

It had been a week since they arrived to Aurora, the world cup's main venue, and the heat and humidity were almost unbearable. While Bella adjusted quickly, Edward, on the other hand was still complaining about the heat.

"_I thought you would be used to the sun and heat with all the photographs you take in Africa for National Geographic," Bella mocked him as they left the hotel for another interview at the stadium._

_Edward frowned and wiped his forehead—he looked like a melting vanilla ice cream. "Africa's heat is dry; it's the humidity that I can't stand."_

Bella had simply rolled her eyes and walked towards the rental car.

Just thinking about that car had Bella chuckling as she sipped on her second beer.

Edward had been so adamant about driving that she let him. After the third time he screamed like a little girl when he took the wrong lane and one of the _Metrovia_ buses zoomed past him, he gave up.

Bella had cracked up at his disgruntled face.

"_Don't worry, you'll get back your man card once we are back home," she had teased him._

"Watcha having, Swan?"

Bella groaned and finished off her beer, flagging the barman for another one.

Why couldn't she escape from him for just one freaking night?

Edward had been glued to her every single day. Granted, he had been sort of charming and nice—most of the time—but he quickly went back to the obnoxious and arrogant asshole he had become.

Bella often wondered what happened to the old shy Edward from school with long hair that almost covered his eyes and thick, black-rimmed glasses. She used to have the biggest crush on him, but he started to change when they got to college. He started going to the gym more, got a haircut and contacts. Suddenly, he was too good to hang out with her. Then the rumors about him having only one-week girlfriends started, and Bella mourned the loss of the nice guy who once bought almost the entire store in cookies to cheer her up after her mom passed away.

Bella sighed, pushing the memories to the back of her mind. There was no use dwelling on the past anyway.

Remembering what Edward had asked, Bella raised an eyebrow at him and tilted the new bottle of beer towards him. "I think you are smart enough to see what I'm having, Cullen."

He hummed and ordered a shot of bourbon.

Edward turned to her, but Bella kept her sight on the rows of bottles in front of her. He cleared his throat, and Bella watched him through the corner of her eye. He looked . . . nervous.

"What is it, Cullen?"

He sighed and knocked back another shot, asking the barman to leave the bottle. "Since we don't have any interviews scheduled tomorrow, and we've been working nonstop the past week, maybe we could leave the city for a bit? I heard about this great beach just an hour away where you can see the whales, and well, you see . . . I was sort of thinking that maybe you and I could—"

"Well, well, well . . . what have we here?"

A hand came down on Edward's shoulder, interrupting his speech. Bella looked up, and she did a double take when she saw the man standing next to Edward.

Tall, broad shoulders, bronze hair, green eyes, and a wicked smile, Bella could've confused the man for Edward had she not been sitting next to the man himself. The only differences were their noses—Edward's was slightly crooked to the right—and their skin tones—the newcomer had a golden tone to his skin, like the one you would get after spending hours under the sun throughout the years.

Still, for a minute there, Bella considered the possibility of long lost brothers until Edward spoke.

"Hello, Finnick," Edward greeted him through clenched teeth. "What are you doing here?"

Finnick leaned against the bar top, shooting a flirtatious smile at Edward. "I'm doing a photo shoot for a swimwear line, and you?"

"I'm covering the FIFA World Cup."

"And I assume this gorgeous lady sitting next to you is your partner?"

Bella smiled and extended her hand. "I'm Bella Swan, and I'm a journalist for the Seattle Sun Times. You're a model, right?"

Finnick took her hand, but instead of shaking it, he kissed the back of it. "_Enchantez_, Miss Swan, and yes, I'm a model. In fact, I have worked with Mr. Grouch right here," he said, smirking at Edward. "We were in Belize, right? After the shoot, we went to this club and got plastered. You wouldn't believe the things this man does when he is ten sheets to the wind!"

Bella leaned in closer, her mind reeling with all the juicy gossip she could get on Edward. "Oh, do tell…"

One hour later, Bella couldn't stop laughing. Finnick, true to his word, had some serious dirty laundry on Edward. From jumping on bar tops and dancing drunkenly to the beat of a rock song, to performing a striptease on a subway pole, and to horrible karaoke nights where he practically slurred the words, Bella ate it all up.

Too bad she wouldn't remember anything the next morning.

She should've stopped on her sixth beer.

Finnick chuckled, sipping from his _piña colada_. Bella was sitting on his lap, and Edward sat next to them with a murderous look on his face.

"So, anyway, after the last photo shoot, we went to this club with loud music and laser lights. We thought it looked cool, y'know? Turned out it was rave night, and somehow, someone had slipped us some E in our drinks because suddenly I couldn't keep my hands off—"

Edward stood up, almost knocking both Finnick and Bella back.

"You know what, man? Let's meet up some other time. We have places to be and things to do, not to mention my partner here looks like she needs to be cut off."

Bella hiccupped. "Oh, pish posh… please finnissshhh what you were saying, Finniiiick!"

Finnick chuckled, exchanging a look with Edward. "Some other time." He winked at her, setting her on the barstool, and then turned to Edward. "Don't leave without calling me, Edward."

Bella watched Finnick walk away, his tight leather pants providing her a nice view of his toned thighs and backside.

"He's got a great ass," Bella slurred, her filter long gone.

"You have no idea," Edward answered, throwing back another shot of bourbon.

Bella's eyebrows rose in surprise and shock.

Edward, realizing what he just said, started spluttering and coughing. "I mean, it's not like—"

"That's kinda hot."

Edward's jaw dropped. "It is?"

Bella bit her lip and nodded, her cheeks warming, and this time her blush wasn't only because of the alcohol in her system.

Edward smirked. "Interesting . . . "

~BoH~

Monday. _Lunes_. In any language, it sucked wind. Another weekend behind them, another precious chance to make progress with Bella Swan squandered.

Sure, there had been "moments" where she'd set down the daggers while the two of them were out and about the city, pulling together the human interest stories and laying the groundwork for the drama of the World Cup matches. Edward had caught Bella more than once looking at him with a moony, far-off longing he vaguely remembered before she started hating his guts.

Each time, though, the good feelings seemed to evaporate just as quickly as they had come on. One step forward, two steps back. _Fuck_, Edward didn't know how much farther back he could go before his ass landed in the Pacific.

The one good thing that could be said about this little trek out to the rainforest of Crepúsculo was that Santiago Oliveira would not be part of it. If Edward had to listen to that smarmy son-of-a-soccer-player—_discúlpame_, FOOTBALL player—talk about his "gift for the game" for one fucking minute longer, he'd need a barf bag attached to his hip. Hopefully, the guy's parents were slightly less grating than the cocky fucker they'd spawned.

"Our bus leaves in ten minutes. Are you ready to go?" Crouched intently over her olive-green backpack, Bella couldn't even be bothered to look at him while she issued the warning.

Was it hot in here, or was it that fucking sliver of cinnamon skin between the top of Bella's skirt and the thin white blouse that was no longer quite fully tucked in? Maybe it was the creamy section of thigh peeking out from the other end? Some combination of the suffocating humidity and his partner's minimal clothing was surely to blame for Edward's inability to stop leaking water out of every damn pore.

"Yes, I filled up my water bottle at the hotel like a normal person. What'd you do, Swan, buy out the entire country's supply of Dasani bottles?"

Without dignifying his comment with a reply, Bella gave her backpack zipper a firm tug before looking up. The saddest part was she didn't look the least bit angry or even disappointed. Almost as if she'd just expected him to be an asshole, and there he was walking right into the role like it was written with him in mind.

"Don't expect me to carry that for you," he added, infuriated by her non-response.

"When have I ever asked you to do anything for me, Edward?"

The fire in her eyes should have thrilled him. Negative attention was better than no attention at all, right? Then why did his stomach lurch in that old familiar _you-fucked-up-royally _kind of way?

"_El bus de las diez y quince a Crepúsculo está abordando ahora."_

Bella swept up her backpack and heaved it over her right shoulder, jockeying for a spot by the door. Edward hung back, letting Bella sweat it out while the thick crowd filled in between them. She was playing it cool, all right, not even turning back once to see where he was.

Stepping out into the bright glare of the sun, Edward was just in time to catch Bella's backpack disappearing into the doorway of the bus. Let's see how cool Lois Lane was now, stuffed into a hot bus for the next four hours with some beady-eyed stranger.

_She'll be begging for my company._

Smug smirk firmly in place, Edward boarded the bus, searching for his damsel in distress, only to find Bella deep in conversation with a dark-haired, well-dressed man seated next to her. Slowing his pace in the aisle, Edward cleared his throat and waited for Bella to initiate the apology and explain to the stranger that he would need to relocate.

"_Hola!_" she said brightly, gracing Edward with a beautiful smile.

He chuckled. "_Hola._"

The man, puzzled, looked from Bella to Edward and back to Bella. "_¿Desea sentarse con este tipo?_" he asked.

"_No, no_!" Bella answered, grasping the man's arm to keep him from leaving. "Nuh nuh nuh nuh no."

Edward's jaw dropped as understanding dawned. He searched frantically for a place to sit and a chance at regaining a scrap of pride.

"I think there's an empty seat in the back row," Bella offered, so sweetly the man next to her would never suspect the jab she had just delivered.

Edward felt it, though.

As the bus gobbled up the paved highways of Aurora beneath its wheels, Edward stewed in anger and resentment. Three hours later, as the scenery changed to the lush ferns and shade trees of the rainforest, a new attitude rose in his chest: determination.

Bella Swan would be his, even if he had to choke on his pride to make it happen.

~AF~

Edward felt the pulse of time get louder and louder with its passing, and still he had no idea of how to achieve his goal.

Bella was carrying around a beautiful Nikon D4, which had been her excuse for the detour. However, she seemed to take a picture only here and there, so Edward had no idea why she had wanted to hike in the smothering humidity when they should be interviewing the Oliveiras, not that he was in a position to question her behavior since she had unceremoniously told him to stay at the glorified guesthouse, _Hotel El Peón Rojo_.

He couldn't have that, of course. If he wanted to get the girl, he would have to make use of the limited time he had. He wanted her; he always had. The silent distance she had suddenly placed between them made the want unbearably acute.

Walking among the lush greens, Bella looked like she belonged in the forest, an exotic bird with her hair twisted in a messy bun and curly tendrils about her face that mimicked the newborn ferns that surrounded them. Edward found himself incapable of directing his camera at anything but her. In a way, her resolve to pretend he wasn't there worked in his favor at the moment. In a way…

"You don't even know what to do with that camera, do you?" he asked when his water supply ran out, and she showed no intent to return to the main road. Mocking her sounded like a good way to get her to react, but Bella only walked towards an orchid, and standing below it, snapped a picture. She extended a trembling finger and softly caressed the edge of a waxy petal.

Edward's lens was expectedly focused on her, so when she ran a finger under her eye, he knew the droplet she spread was not sweat.

"Bella?" he asked, concerned and disconcerted.

"Why did you even come along, Edward?" she snapped. "To complain about the heat some more? Are you thirsty? Am I in the way of a perfect picture?"

"What the fuck?" he blurted, further befuddlement in his voice that was laced subtly with irritation.

"I wanted to come here alone," she whispered so softly he was sure she didn't mean for him to hear.

They walked back to _El Peón Rojo_ in uncomfortable silence.

*tremble*

"_¿Qué quiere decir con que sólo hay una habitación disponible?_"

Apparently, there had been a misunderstanding, and the hotel clerk had assumed they would be staying together together since another crew of journalists had had the same idea they did— interview Oliveira's family and friends.

Bella was fuming, ranting in Spanish and gesticulating wildly. Edward thought it was adorable…and hot, quite frankly.

"You!" She pointed an accusing finger, making Edward drop his delighted smirk.

"You are sleeping on the floor," Bella hissed.

"Oh, no. I can't do that. I have a weak back," Edward lied, theatrically bending backwards by the waist. "I'm sure the bed is big enough for both of us."

"Where would your ego fit though?" she asked with a saccharine voice, and batted her eyelashes.

Accepting her insolent capitulation, his pleased grin was back in full force, and Bella wanted to pull his hair and scream obscenities at him. The idea of pulling his hair invited unwanted imagery into her mind that Bella quickly dispelled, waving a hand as if it were a bothersome fly.

*tremble*

"Do you have to move so much? What are you doing—whacking off?"

"Ha! You wish you could see something that hot!" Edward said and continued to lie on his stomach, head on his arms, moving his foot back and forth, back and forth. The smile he wore would have driven Bella to actual violence. He was lucky there was absolute darkness.

Bella snorted.

"Right," she scoffed, but that sight would not be easily chased away.

*tremble*

"Will you stop with the moving?" Bella, frustrated beyond belief that he had woken her up when she had finally fallen asleep, yelled and punched Edward, only to realize he was holding her.

"Ouch! What?"

"Stop moving!"

"M'not," Edward mumbled, securing his hold on her, almost immediately asleep again.

Bella thought about extricating herself from the boa-like grip he had on her waist, but she bit her lip and cuddled him.

She could go back to her aloofness in the morning.

*tremble*

"_¡Buenos días!" _the manager greeted them when they entered the quaint dining room. "I hope the earthquake didn't keep you up."

"There was an earthquake?" Bella asked her, wide-eyed.

"_Uno pequeñito_. Nothing to worry about." She smiled reassuringly.

"It appears you owe me an apology," Edward leaned down to whisper in her ear. Distracted by the goose bumps he saw rising on her neck and shoulders, he couldn't escape the elbow she dug into his ribs.

As he prepared an appropriate response, the ground jumped like magic beans under their feet for a couple of seconds.

Before they could make sense of what had happened, their world started swinging and shaking, making the small hotel rain debris and trinkets on them for an endless minute.

When the earth's raging and deafening sounds stopped, and the gray dust cloud slowly settled, the yelling and crying started to filter through Bella's consciousness.

"Bella! Bella, are you okay? You are bleeding…we have to get out of here!"

Bella saw her own hand lift and touch the blood that dripped down Edward's brow before she passed out.

* * *

**Authors' Note: **We thank you all for the overwhelming response to this story- all the follows, favorites, reviews, and especially the JOINERS and DONORS to the cause.

Now, it's up to you! The rest of this story will become a collaboration among any and all who would care to join us, **AVAILABLE ONLY BY DONATING TO THE RELIEF EFFORT**. Don't leave these two stranded in the quake! Join us and/or donate to the cause! (Please find the link on our profile to the Fandom Gives blog.)

**IF YOU WANT TO WRITE A CHAPTER (200-800 words), join our Facebook Group First Responders **(see the link on our profile)** OR CONTACT any of the three of us **(see our profile for our fanfic author links or PM this account, First Responders)** and we'll fill you in on how this works!** Meanwhile, check out the Fandom Gives blog (also linked on our profile), make a cash donation to the relief effort to secure your copy of the compilation, write a story, donate an item to the online raffle, sign up to beta or make a banner, and SPREAD THE WORD! All are ways to help- choose yours! This is all about using our words to make a difference, and we're so pleased to have your support.

Thank you from all of us!  
Mina, Ana, and BoH


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